


Drowning in Love

by BlueChu



Category: The LEGO Movie (2014)
Genre: Abandonment Issues, Cuddling, Gen, Kissing, M/M, Making Friends, also mermaids have sharp teeth and claws in the au idk if that will be brought up much, bioluminescent mermaids, emmet and rex are separate people in the au, idk - Freeform, learning how to swim, maybe that will get brought up, mermaid au, they just have similar backstories, under water kissing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:26:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21647521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueChu/pseuds/BlueChu
Summary: Merman Emmet saves Rex's life after he almost drowns, and as Emmet helps Rex get home they begin to fall in love.
Relationships: Emmet Brickowski/Rex Dangervest
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20





	1. First Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by ickowskiBois's super cool art: https://ickowskibois.tumblr.com/post/189425363594/hey-so-one-of-my-friends-was-like-the-little

It was a cool morning, the water cold enough to just make the tips of his fins curl up as he races towards the surfaces, soon colliding with the surface and breaking free from the water’s tension.    
  


  
And then Emmet lays there for a minute, floating with head above the water, taking in the bright sunlight and enjoying the warmth. But this brief float is brought to an end as he turns his head at the sound of a nearby boat motor, and he quickly dives back into the water.

_ But hey, that’s why he came up here anyway. _ There was a tourist ship that always came by this time of day, and he loved seeing new people, and dreaming of one day being able to talk to them,  _ maybe even make friends with them.  _ But that last thing probably wouldn’t happen, after all he knows what happens to mermaids that go and try to talk to people. Well  _ he doesn’t really know _ , but he does know they don’t come back, and that has to mean something bad happens to them.

But that’s off topic, what's on topic is that Emmet is watching the bottom of the ship pass by.

The lone mermen swims to the surface and pokes his head up, just a bit, and sighs in relief as the passengers on board seem to be more preoccupied with talking to one another than looking out at the ocean. That lets him just observe them in peace.

Today there seems to be some reoccurring people, and a new face. There’s the captain, Emmet had heard his tale of being a dangerous pirate that had retired to the comfy life to give tours a couple of times now but the merman isn’t sure if the story is true or not. But he has no reason to distrust the captain, so he guesses it's true. And there’s the Benny guy, he’s been traveling out here to practice his diving, apparently, he needs to pass some sort of diving test for his astronaut training. Emmet isn’t sure what an astronaut is, but the Benny makes it sound like it’s a super important job. And it looks like the Mystery Girl is here, Emmet never figured out her name, because she changes it every time she talks to someone on the boat, but Emmet can always recognize her bright blue and pink hair. 

  
  
And, there’s a new person, Emmet swims in closer to try and see what he looks like. 

  
  
The guy has dark brown hair, bright green eyes, and is just absolutely ripped. He seems to be arguing with Mystery Girl at the moment, throwing his arms up in frustration as he heads over to the edge of the boat causing Emmet to swim back, hoping to not be seen. And, it looks like he’s starting to get ready to jump into the water, with Mystery Girl pulling his arm trying to get him off the edge of the boat, but he’s already thrown off his vest and ready to go, and then the boat hits a strong wave and the guy falls over the edge. He’s dangling there for a moment as the girl tries to lift him up, but he slips from her grasp and crashes into the ocean.

Emmet lets out a small gasp as he watches him sink, moving frantically as goes deeper. And then it dawns on Emmet, this guy doesn’t know how to swim.    
  
  


So he moves fast, reaching the guy just as he stops moving, and Emmet fills with panic, worried this guy just died, and wraps his arms around him, rushing him to the surface, looking around for a place to bring the guy, spotting a small patch of land. So he dashes to it, and drags the body onto the sand, panting as he lays over the unconscious man. He’s not noticing a lot of chest movements from this guy, and he knows humans need to breathe, so Emmet’s panic is starting to get worse. 

  
  
He thinks back to some of the instructions he’s seen the captain give about cpr, and with a deep breath, Emmet leans in to the guy, pinching the nose to start trying to give him an air, and in a few minutes the guy starts coughing up water and breathing normally, though still not awake.

Emmet relaxes as he sees him breathing normally, and then looks back to the ocean, he guesses he shouldn’t stick around and find out if this guy wants to be friends. He probably won’t, he’ll probably just think Emmet is some sort of monster and run away. So, with a heavy heart he drags himself back to the water, giving one last look to the guy, before heading back to where he thinks the boat is, hoping to find some way to let the people on the boat know where he had taken their friend.

Emmet reaches where he had last seen the boat, but it’s nowhere in sight, the only thing he can see is the guy’s vest floating in the water. And Emmet gently floats up to it, poking his head above water as he picks it up holding the clothing up to his face. It’s really soft, he hadn’t been expecting it. Well, it wasn’t like the guy could wear it right now, it’s to wet and cold, and Emmet just puts it on. 

After enjoying the feeling of wearing clothing for the first time, he starts to form a game plan. He knows the tourist ship always comes this way once a day, so he just has to wait for them to come back tomorrow and then probably throw a rock at them and make and arrow out of driftwood pointing to the island? 

He shakes his head at the idea, and figures he’ll just try to figure out a better idea sometime tonight, and heads back to the island to check on the guy.


	2. Stay With Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emmet gets spotted by Rex and wonders if he's going to ask for his vest back.

“You only think about yourself!” Lucy shouts at him, and Rex curls his fingers into a fist as he almost starts to shake with anger.

“OH I ONLY THINK ABOUT MYSELF,” he shouts back, starting to get the other people on the boat to stare at him, “well maybe I have trouble thinking about other people when all it’s ever gotten me is pain.”   
  


  
Lucy seems to be hurt by that comment for a second but her anger quickly reignites, “you being hurt doesn’t give you the right to be an ass to other people, other people still have feelings you know!”   
  
“Oh really, you didn’t consider me to have feelings when you told me how pathetic I was-“   
  
“You know I never said that, Rex I care about-“   
  
“Oh sorry, I meant to say, weak, childish, stupid-“   
  
The anger is gone from Lucy’s voice now as tries to get closer to Rex, “I was just, scared of you getting hurt, I never meant-“   
  
  
But Rex has decided he has had enough of this conversation, throwing off his vest as he walks over to the edge of the boat, “screw this I’m going for a swim.”   
  
  
Lucy looks at him confused for a moment, before going to quickly grabs his arm, “Rex, don’t fucking jump into the ocean right now, how will you get back on the boat??”   
  
  
But he was already on the edge, “don’t care,” is what he says, to seem cool and reckless, but really he had a plan to climb back onto the boat on the other side after he finished. He just really needed to be away from Lucy for a minute. But as he is perched on the edge, he remembers that he can’t swim, so he goes to quickly to jump back onto the boat, but before he can a big wave craahes into the boat and sends him falling into the ocean, the cold water sending a sharp shock through his body.

He moves frantically breathing in the water as he tries to make his way to the surface but all he manages to do is sink faster, and soon everything grows dark.

And the next thing he knows is that his chest hurts and he’s coughing up water. He lifts himself up on the sandy beach as he lifts a hand to block out the bright sun. There’s something in the water, it looks like a person swimming away, he tries to shout at them, but only ends up coughing more water. And as he finishes the coughing fit the person is already gone.    
  
  
He sort of gives a defeated grunt and goes to head off the beach. In a small amount of time he makes a full walk around the island. It’s a really small island. He groans as he collapses at the edge of a small cove near the beach. His phone wasn’t working, he had no idea how far from the boat he was, and he had just gotten in a fight with the one person who would bother to look for him.    
  
  
He wasn’t really sure what to do, maybe start a campfire or-

His survival thoughts are brought to an end when he notices through the clear water near the cove that a person was down there, looking up at him, like they don’t realize the water was still enough here for him to see them.

He gets on his knees and leans closer to the water trying to see them more clearly, and the person tilts their head, like they’re trying to figure out what the heck he’s doing, still oblivious they’re being watched.

Rex starts to notice things about the person, that they had light brown hair, gentle brown eyes, scales surrounding their face, and “hey! You’re wearing my vest!”   
  
  
Apparently the guy heard that and panics, pupils growing big as he realized he’s spot and starts to swim away, to which Rex responds by yelping, “don’t go,” leaning forward to try and reach after him, only to fall into the water.   
  
  
As soon as he hits the water he starts thrashing, unable to keep himself above water and the other guy quickly comes back, pulling him back to the surface of the cove. Rex’s gives a few coughs and quickly sits up grabbing the hand of his savior before the guy could vanish again managing to ask, “who are you,” between the coughs.

  
  


The guy looks like he’s going through three different levels of panic right now, and Rex picks up on that and lets go of his hand. And then he starts to really look at this guy, noticing that, oh, he’s not human. Rex figures that must have been kind of obvious, the scales, the tail, the whole adorable glittering eyes. 

  
  


“Uh, thanks for saving me,” he manages to say between the awkward silence, “and I guess you probably saved me before, right? When I fell off the boat.”

  
  


The guys looks away from Rex, still looking to scared to talk, but gives a small nod.

  
  


Rex gives a small smile, happy to get some communication going between them, “so I’m Rex, Rex Dangervest. Yeah I’m a pretty cool guy,” the guy turns to him now interested that he seems to want to talk to him, and Rex is never one to turn away an audience, “but as cool as I am, you’re like what, a merman, that’s pretty cool too man,” the guy has almost started beaming now, Rex wonders if he’s ever heard a compliment.

And then, he finds the courage to talk, “I’m Emmet,” his voice is quiet and unsure, like he’s not sure how to talk.

  
  


“Really?" Rex seems a little shocked for a second but quickly recovers and continues, "well Emmet’s a pretty sweet name,” Emmet is now just absolutely grinning, a row of sharp teeth showing, and Rex tries to not think that he just finds them hot, “could you tell me a little about yourself, or where we are?”

  
  


“Oh,” Emmet thinks for a moment, trying to remember how to say all the words right, “I’m a merman, I’ve been living alone since I got kicked out of my squad, and this is an island brought you to so you wouldn’t drown. You are really bad at swimming.”   
  
  
“I’m not bad at swimming,” Rex gets defensive crossing his arms, “I just, never learned how to swim. If I bothered to learn it, I would be great at it.”   
  
  
“Ah,” Emmet looks to the ocean and then back to Rex, “so you’re not, scared of me.”

  
  


Rex raises an eyebrow to that question, “why would I be scared of you, no offense but I’ve met puppies scarier than you.”   
  
  
Emmet looks relieved and sort of curls up into a ball next to Rex, “I just, always thought, if I tried talking to a human, they would be scared of me.”   
  
  
Rex scrunches up his face as he looks down to Emmet, “hey, how long have you been alone?”

  
  


“I’m not been the best at keeping track at time,” he’s looking kind of sad now, “a long time I guess, but it’s been okay.”

  
  


Rex gently places a hand on top of Emmet’s head, “well I know being alone sucks, so uh, I guess I’m glad I got to meet you. No one deserves to be alone.”

  
  


Emmet looks up to him giving a small smile, “thanks, maybe after your friends on the boat come back for you, you can travel back here and we can hang out again.”   
  
  
Rex lets out a scoff at that, “those people weren’t my friends, they’re probably happy thinking I drowned,” as he finishes that statement he looks down and is shocked to see a super sad looking Emmet.

  
  


“But, but, you were talking to them, and hanging out with them, doesn’t that make you friends?”

  
  


“There’s more to friendship to that, there’s trust, and being there when someone needs you, and you know, being a decent person to them. And I don’t really do those things,” he sort of sighs after saying that, feeling like he’s going to blow his chance at earning the trust of this guy. 

  
  


“Oh, well I could show you those things, I’ve been practicing at being a good person in case I ever got a chance to join a new squad, and uh,” Emmet scratches the back of his head as he thinks, “we could do it while I teach you how to swim, cause you’ll need to know how to swim to get back home since it sounds like your friends won’t be coming back for you.”

  
  


Rex lets out small chuckle, “sure you can try to teach my whatever you want, but I’m a bit of a stubborn learner,” Emmet seems pleased enough with this answer and sits up to stretch.

“So, Rex, I guess first things first, I should go capture us some lunch? You okay with fish? Humans eat fish right?”

  
  


“Ehh, yeah, but I might cook it, actually,” he stands up and cracks his knuckles, “I should probably get started on a campfire.”   
  
  
  
Emmet looks up to him excitedly, “ooooh does that mean you’re going to make a fire? I've always wanted to touch one!”   
  
  
  
Rex lets out a laugh and gives a mean smirk, “well as soon as I get it started I’ll let you touch it as much as you want.”   
  
  
  
“Thanks!!!” Emmet then starts to crawl his way back to the water, to which Rex sighs and walks over to him, picking the merman up.

  
  


“You can just ask for help,” and with that said Rex places Emmet gently into the water, trying to ignore how much the guy is blushing at him, “so, see you in like an hour I guess.”   
  
  


  
Emmet, trying to not think about his blushing gives a small nod and swims away. Leaving Rex behind to watch him disappear into the distance, and as a cool breeze passes by a thought comes to Rex, “that fucker still has my shirt!”

  
  
  
  


\---

“And you’re certain he was dragged away by a mer-creature?”

Lucy grips her side as she looks to the ground, “yes, when I jumped in after him, that’s what I saw take him away before I could reach him.”

  
  


The man adjusts his circular glasses as he gives her a sad smile, “well being that these mer-creatures are incredibly dangerous, there isn’t a high chance he,”   
  


“I know,” she looks like she would rather just drop dead than have this conversation, “but Rex is a fighter, he wouldn’t go down without a fight, and I think he could survive.”   
  


The officer sighs, “we’ll go into the area first thing at sun rise and we'll contanct you tomorrow evening to tell you if we’re able to find anything.”   
  


She's still looking away as she bites her lip, trying to disagree with the reality that she had lost Rex again, and this time he wasn't coming back. But with the memory of the sea-creature draggining away his motionless body etched into her head she's finding it almost impossible to at least consider that he's gone.

  
  


“Now if you will, we have to go and release a hazardous warning for the area, we can’t have any ships go out if there’s mer-creature loose.”   
  
  
  


She gives a small nod and walks out, heading out of the building before she takes a deep breath to call Metal Beard.

  
  


Her voice is tired as she talks, “listen, they don’t, think he’s alive,” she pauses for a moment, making a final decision, “if you still have the hunting gear I’m ready to take you up on your offer and end the creature myself.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all for now! Might continue if enough people like it.


End file.
